The Future of Retail: How Top Brands Choose In-Store Tech

The retail landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements and shifting consumer behaviors. Top retail brands are increasingly investing in in-store technology to stay competitive and meet the demands of today’s savvy shoppers. According to recent research, nearly half of all retailers have already invested in in-store technology, and over 80% of the remainder plan to do so within the following year.
Top retailers prioritize addressing out-of-stock issues, optimizing pricing and promotions, ensuring planogram compliance, and refining allocation and assortment planning to reduce in-store inefficiencies, which can cost retailers significantly. This article explores how top brands evaluate and select the in-store technologies that shape the future of retail.
4 Key Criteria for Advancing Technology in Retail Stores and Boosting Competitiveness
Here are four criteria used by the industry’s most sophisticated technology buyers to enhance their business model and create a competitive advantage.
1. Identifying Real-World Business Challenges
Successful technology investments begin with a clear understanding of the specific business challenges that need to be addressed. Retail executives, supported by finance and innovation teams, must pinpoint operational inefficiencies that can be mitigated through technology.
Top-performing teams:
- Pinpoint-Specific Problems: Retailers often face significant inefficiencies in pricing & promotion execution and managing stocks. Solutions that automate inventory tracking and optimize pricing & promotions are highly sought after.
- Create value across the business: Effective retail technology delivers returns across the entire business. Many retailers see a 4x return on their initial investment within a few months, thanks to broad applications spanning store operations, supply chain, e-commerce, and vendor relationships.
- Enhance Visibility: Retailers need to identify areas requiring more visibility. Less than 30% report having true visibility into managing stocks, pricing and promotion execution, planogram compliance, and allocation and assortment planning.
2. Supporting Store Teams and Enhancing Customer Experience
In-store technology must enhance the experience for both store teams and shoppers. Evolving customer expectations and labor challenges require solutions that are human-centered and designed to improve overall efficiency and satisfaction.
- Automates repetitive tasks: Tedious tasks, such as manual stock audits and price checks, are ideal for automation. In North America, 60% of items believed to be out-of-stock are actually in the store, highlighting the need for automation.
- Improves online inventory accuracy: Automation speeds up online order fulfillment with digital pick paths. Inventory management technology provides real-time, precise item availability, price accuracy, and location, enhancing both in-store and online shopping experiences.
- Enhances the in-store experience: Enhanced customer service, accurate pricing information, more accessible associates, and well-stocked shelves improve the shopping experience. Accurate data helps associates make smarter inventory decisions and focus on higher-value tasks, including customer service. AI can save up to 30 weekly labor hours per store, improving associate satisfaction and retention while reducing shrinkage.
3. Providing Actionable Insights
Data alone is not enough; it must be actionable. The accuracy of computer vision technology is critical, as it underpins all analytics and provides the foundation for actionable insights.
Top-performing teams use in-store analytics to:
- Alert Staff to Issues: Technology can help store associates respond to issues such as low and out-of-stock items, pricing errors, and mislocated products, enabling proactive management.
- Establish Best Practices: Retail leaders use technology to monitor conditions and performance remotely, setting company-wide performance standards and institutionalizing best practices.
- Create New Revenue Streams: Accurate inventory data can be monetized by reselling insights to partners, driving additional ROI.
4. Ensuring Customer Satisfaction with Scaled Deployments
Retail decision-makers often uncover discrepancies in vendor claims during reference checks, such as untested products and limited deployments. Ensuring customer satisfaction requires thorough vetting of technology solutions.
High-performing teams:
- Confirm Full-Scale Deployments and Measurable ROI: Reliable metrics include the number of scaled deployments across numerous locations. Lack of adequate evaluations can lead to deactivated deployments due to unmet promises.
- Engage in Back-Channeling: Speaking directly with analysts, partners, and customers provides a clearer picture of vendor performance.
- Seek Long-Term Satisfaction: Customers should provide concrete examples of the technology’s quality, service, and business outcomes.
Conclusion
The future of retail hinges on strategic in-store technology deployment, addressing real-world challenges, supporting both store teams and shoppers, offering actionable insights, and ensuring satisfaction with widespread implementations. Top brands are paving the way for retail success by distinguishing effective solutions from ineffective ones, which is crucial in an evolving retail environment. Through these strategies, leading retailers are improving operations and consistently delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Optimizing Retail In-Store Operations with ChainDrive Technology
Improving retail in-store operations with ChainDrive Technology is instrumental in achieving operational efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction. By seamlessly integrating advanced tools for inventory management, supply chain logistics, and real-time analytics, ChainDrive retail management system empowers retailers to streamline processes and make data-driven decisions swiftly. This technology not only ensures accurate inventory tracking and efficient stock replenishment but also enables retailers to maintain optimal pricing and promotion strategies. Moreover, ChainDrive facilitates improved employee productivity by automating routine tasks, allowing staff to focus more on delivering exceptional customer service.
Are you ready to experience how ChainDrive can transform your retail operations? Request a demo today and discover the power of innovative retail technology firsthand.